Free Republic

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A pivotal member of Marco Rubio's campaign actively encouraged the Supreme Court to impose gay "marriage" on the entire nation by judicial fiat. Senator Rubio's deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to redefine marriage in last summer's Obergefell v. Hodges case. The amicus curiae brief, which was signed by 300 Republican operatives whose names spill over 24 pages, argued that having the court discover a nationwide right to same-sex "marriage" served "conservative values." The state marriage protection amendments defining marriage as the union of...

The Denial About Super Bowl 50 Having a Gay Agenda is Laughable! It all started with this simple statement. “How about this: God is Love. I believe we should have had a cross with the same words "Believe in Love" without the rainbow. Got a problem with that?” That’s what I wrote in response to an article written in the Huffington Post the day after the Super Bowl, entitled, “To Those Bothered By The 'Gay Agenda' At Super Bowl 50.” If you’re not in the know, a huge rainbow flag with the words, “Believe in Love” was prominently featured at...

ROWAN COUNTY, Kentucky, February 9, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - A federal judge has turned down the ACLU's attempt to force Kim Davis to violate her conscience while issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Although Governor Matt Bevin granted a religious accommodation for the county clerk to issue altered marriage licenses to homosexuals, the ACLU brought a lawsuit seeking to force Davis to issue the old forms with her full name on them. "There is absolutely no reason that this case went so far without reasonable people respecting and accommodating Kim Davis' First Amendment rights," said Mat Staver, the founder and chairman...

CONCORD, New Hampshire, February 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Does Donald Trump support the gay agenda or oppose it? On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, observers are still scratching their heads about where the GOP frontrunner actually stands. Trump has repeatedly and consistently said he supports the natural definition of marriage, but can a President Trump be relied on to promote it resolutely and cogently? It is this question that has many marriage activists expressing concern about his increasingly likely hold on the GOP nomination. In fact, the National Organization for Marriage has gone so far as to say...

As Churchill inspires us, we must fight the tyrannical menace that is the modern homosexual agenda, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. We must fight strong to the end, we must fight for the churches, we must fight for the chapels, and we must fight for the children. We shall fight in the media, we shall fight in the legislatures, and we shall fight in the courts. And if necessary, as Dr. Martin Luther King inspires us, we must go to jail.

January 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Two years ago, I was asked to speak at our state capitol on behalf of the Marriage Amendment. The hearing was in a center room surrounded by a hallway. Those preparing to speak were kept in the hall until their time to address the amendment.  As I waited in the hallway, I was approached by a man who supported redefining marriage to include unions between members of the same sex. He was quite nice and reasonable in the beginning. "I imagine you're going to be speaking for the amendment on marriage?" he began. "Yes," I...

TAMPA, Florida, January 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Is the procreative impossibility of homosexual activity the same as heterosexuals being biologically infertile? Stetson University law professor Joseph Morrissey is suing for a tax deduction of $36,538 for in vitro fertilization treatments and the cost of a surrogate to carry twin boys for himself and his male partner. In denying Morrissey's claim, the IRS explained that for tax deductions, the medical services must be provided to the taxpayer, his spouse, or his dependent. Therefore, a surrogate does not qualify, and neither does IVF for someone other than the filer, his spouse, or...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) -- President Obama says that marriage's redefinition "is here to stay." Obama's comments, which he directed in part at Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, came in response to a question from YouTube creator and open lesbian Ingrid Nilsen, who asked "if progress in the LGBT community is not here to stay in certain states?" "Oh, no, it's here to stay," said the president. “Understand that the Supreme Court has ruled that under the Constitution everybody in all 50 states has the right to marry the person they love. That's now the law of the...

ALBANY, New York, January 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Farmers who host weddings in their backyard cannot refuse ceremonies where two people of the same sex are trying to get married, a New York court has ruled. The court's decision affirmed the state's Division of Human Rights (DHR) ruling against Robert and Cynthia Gifford, owners of Liberty Ridge Farms, after they declined to host a "wedding" for a same-sex couple. The Giffords said they would host the reception for a lesbian couple, but the ceremony itself would have to be hosted elsewhere because of their religious beliefs about marriage. DHR found...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 13, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - The next Republican president will "respect" different forms of marriages, including same-sex "marriages," South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in last night's Republican response to the State of the Union address. "If we [Republicans] held the White House," she said, "we would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy." Even the terminology "modern families" evokes the ABC sitcom featuring a homosexual couple raising a child. The GOP has been uncertain how to respond to the Supreme Court's Obergefell v....

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, January 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Alabama's top justice has ordered the state's judges to uphold the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, despite the U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges decision last June redefining marriage. Chief Justice Roy Moore said probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue marriage licenses in conflict with the state marriage amendment pending a decision from the Alabama Supreme Court. "Confusion and uncertainty exist among the probate judges of this State as to the effect of Obergefell on the 'existing orders' in API," Moore said in a January 6 administrative order. "Many probate judges...

Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin gave Kim Davis and all the other county clerks in the state a "wonderful Christmas gift" by protecting their religious rights and freedom. Bevin issued an executive order two weeks after taking office that removes the names of all county clerks from marriage licenses issued in Kentucky. Staver said that will enable Davis and all other county clerks to do their jobs — issue marriage licenses to everyone, including same-sex couples — without compromising their religious principles. Davis vaulted from her little county clerk's office in...

Oh, I could hear the balloon deflating all the way from the Politico headquarters.Phllloooooooopppphhtt.Last week, on the day of the highly-watched GOP presidential debate, someone gave Politico’s Mike Allen an enticing piece of catnip to put in his insidery morning email. Secret audio tape would soon be published on a conservative news site supposedly showing that Ted Cruz talks much differently to NYC moderates than Iowa evangelicals. “These leaks are designed to undermine Cruz’s authenticity,” Allen wrote.The prospect of a juicy secret recording flew around the Internet. People reported on the prospect of the audio tape, before ever hearing a...

During the question period, one of the donors told Cruz that gay marriage was one of the few issues on which the two disagreed. Then the donor asked: "So would you say it's like a top-three priority for you - fighting gay marriage?" "No," Cruz replied. "I would say defending the Constitution is a top priority. And that cuts across the whole spectrum - whether it's defending [the] First Amendment, defending religious liberty." Soothing the attendee without contradicting what he has said elsewhere, Cruz added: "People of New York may well resolve the marriage question differently than the people of...

RALEIGH, North Carolina, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Three couples are challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina's law allowing magistrates to bow out of performing same-sex "marriages." According to court documents, the plaintiffs – two lesbian couples and an opposite-sex interracial couple – argue that the state's new law is discriminatory and thus unconstitutional. They and LGBT rights activists, as well as the state's GOP governor, all argue that the intention of the law is to illegally discriminate against same-sex couples. However, ABC 11 noted that a state statute does not require couples to perform marriages, a position argued by...

December 10, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse) -- Obergefell v. Hodges was decided by five robed justices, but only one man both wrote and signed his name to the majority opinion. The four concurring justices chose to concur silently, adding nothing more than their signatures. This case is the brainchild of one man. That man and his state of mind—indeed, his character—matter. Recently, Justice Anthony Kennedy dismissed conscientious objectors to Obergefell, such as Kim Davis, by pointing out that very few Christian judges resigned when the Nazis imposed the Nuremberg Laws on Germany. Leaving aside how offensive it is to compare gay marriage supporters to Nazis, Justice Kennedy’s...

Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from an interview with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) conducted by Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University that aired November 25 on EWTN. The interview series, titled "Candidate Conversations 2016," will pose a number of questions to presidential candidates on topics of particular concern to Catholic voters. The passage below addresses the question of how public officials should best respond to the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling on so-called same-sex "marriage" decided last summer. Here, Senator Cruz publicly endorses a position advanced by Prof. George and others who argue that unconstitutional decisions of...

Albany, N.Y. - The owners of an upstate New York wedding venue who were fined $13,000 after refusing to host a lesbian wedding are appealing the ruling. The owners of Liberty Ridge Farm north of Albany refused to host the 2013 wedding of Melisa and Jennie McCarthy, citing their Christian beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman. The state's Division of Human Rights ruled that business owned by Robert and Cynthia Gifford violated New York's anti-discrimination law. "The policy to not allow same-sex marriage ceremonies on Liberty Ridge Farm is a denial of access to a place...

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, November 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Pockets of resistance to the Supreme Court's judicial activism in constitutionalizing homosexual "marriage" are cropping up across the United States. Not isolated pockets, either. Large, organized pockets. The latest groups to officially resist Obergefell v Hodges include Alabama pediatricians and an entire church denomination, petitioning the state Supreme Court to disobey federal law in order to "protect" churches, families, and children. The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) submitted a "Friend of the Court" brief November 6. "It is in the best interest of children and this State to preserve the fundamental and immutable...

Not all American states have placidly accepted the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges to declare same-sex marriage constitutional. Some are listening to advice from legal scholars that “state officeholders” should “refuse to accept Obergefell as binding precedent”.If this gathers momentum, there could eventually be some scope for state governors to ignore Obergefell as a precedent. Instead, they could argue that the Court had spoken authoritatively only for the parties involved in that case alone. It’s not likely, but a crack may be opening.Here is what happened in Mississippi.Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham, a 52-year-old credit analyst, who already had two...